A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02 eBook

Pressing onwards with too much eagerness, he neglected
to attend to the tide, which happened then to be on
the ebb. His boat stuck fast, and when the morning
broke, he was surrounded by two hundred Moors.
Unable to extricate himself, or to contend against
such mighty odds, Gonzales and seven of his men were
slain; the other five made their escape by swimming
to the ship, which immediately set sail for Lagos.
The clumsy denomination of Angra de Gonzales da
Cintra, to this bay, still commemorates the death
of this commander.

In the subsequent year, 1446, Don Henry sent out a
small squadron of three caravels, under the command
of Antonio Gonzales, assisted by Diego Alfonso, and
by Gomez Perez, the kings pilot. They were directed
to proceed for the Rio del Ouro, and were strictly
enjoined to cultivate the friendship of the natives
by every possible means, to establish peace with them
and to use their utmost endeavours to convert them
to the Christian religion; among other instructions,
they were urged to pass unnoticed the insults or neglect
of honour which they might experience from the negroes.
The Portuguese endeavoured, but ineffectually, to
conciliate the natives, and to remove the angry prejudices
which they entertained. They returned to Lagos
with no other fruit from their voyage except one negro
whom they had received in ransom, and an aged Moor
who requested permission to accompany them to Portugal.
One of their own companions, Juan Fernandez, from
an ardent desire to procure information for the prince,
got leave to remain among the Assanhaji Arabs.

Next year, 1447, Antonio Mendez was ordered to return
in search of Juan Fernandez, from whose inquisitive
disposition much information was expected. In
this expedition he was accompanied by two other caravels,
commanded by Garcia Mendez and Diego Alfonso, but they
were separated by a storm in the early part of the
voyage. Alfonso was the first who reached the
coast at Cape Branco, where he landed, and set up a
wooden cross as a signal to his consorts, and then
proceeded to the islands of Arguin, which afforded
shelter from the tremenduous surf which breaks continually
on the coast of Africa. While waiting at Arguin
for the other ships, Alfonso paid many visits to the
continent, where he made prisoners of twenty-five
of the natives. When the other two ships of the
squadron had joined, they went to the Rio del Ouro
in search of their countryman, Juan Fernandez, who
had been several days anxiously looking out for a
vessel to carry him off.

After experiencing many hardships, Fernandez had succeeded
in gaining the friendship of a considerable person
among the Moors, and was accompanied to the shore
by that mans slaves in a body. The natives exerted
themselves to procure the release of some of their
countrymen who were prisoners with the Portuguese,
to whom they gave nine negroes and a quantity of gold
dust by way of ransom. To the place where this
transaction took place, the navigators gave the name
of Cabo do Resgati, or Cape Ransom; where likewise
Fernam Tavares, an aged nobleman, received the honour
of knighthood, a distinction he had long been entitled
to, but which he would only receive upon the newly
discovered coast. During the homeward voyage,
Gonzales touched at a village near Cape Branco, where
he increased his captives to ninety.